Perfecting The Shot: Sheriff’s Office Hosts Firearms Training Class

Until a recent late-night scare at their home, nei­ther had ever giv­en much thought to own­ing — let alone learn­ing how to use — a firearm.

For­tu­nate­ly, that late-night scare turned out to be harm­less nois­es in the dark; a false alarm. But it woke the Wis­es to the real­iza­tion that they weren’t well equipped to defend them­selves, should they be tar­get­ed by some­one with mali­cious intent.

And once the cou­ple decid­ed to assume a greater mea­sure of respon­si­bil­i­ty for their own pro­tec­tion, they agreed to approach the task sober­ly.

“We just decid­ed to have a gun at home,” said Susan. “Some­thing hap­pened that got us to think­ing a cou­ple of weeks ago, and we real­ized that we have no way to defend our­selves. I’m not get­ting a gun unless I absolute­ly know how to use it. I want to know how to han­dle it safe­ly. I wasn’t going to do this any oth­er way.”

“I did not grow up in a hunt­ing fam­i­ly or any­thing like that,” added David. “There are peo­ple who have been around guns all their lives, but we haven’t. So it’s impor­tant to us that we learn as much as we can.”

The Wis­es were among dozens of local res­i­dents who took part Sat­ur­day in a firearms train­ing class host­ed by the Cull­man Coun­ty Sheriff’s Office. The course, which pro­vid­ed a gen­er­al overview of firearms han­dling and safe­ty, is only one among sev­er­al train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties the sheriff’s office offers the pub­lic through­out the year.